2020 Romanian legislative election

Legislative elections are scheduled to be held in Romania in late 2020, provided that Parliament is not dissolved earlier.

2020 Romanian legislative election

By 31 December 2020[1]
All 329 seats in the Chamber and all 136 seats in the Senate 165 seats in the Chamber and 69 seats in the Senate; 233 overall seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Marcel Ciolacu Ludovic Orban Dan Barna Dacian Cioloș Party PSD PNL USR-PLUS Leader since 26 November 2019 17 June 2017 28 October 2017 Leader's seat D – Buzău did not stand D – Sibiu Last election 67 S / 154 D 30 S / 69 D 13 S / 30 D   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Hunor Kelemen Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu Eugen Tomac Party UDMR ALDE PMP Leader since 26 February 2011 19 June 2015 16 June 2018 Leader's seat D – Harghita S – Bucharest D – Bucharest[2] Last election 9 S / 21 D 9 S / 20 D 8 S / 18 D
Prime Minister before election Ludovic Orban PNL Prime Minister-designate TBD

Electoral system

The 329 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by several methods: 308 are elected from 42 multi-member constituencies based on counties and Bucharest, using proportional representation, four are elected using proportional representation from a constituency representing Romanians living abroad. Parties must pass a threshold of 5% of the national vote or at least 20% of the vote in four constituencies. Further seats can be added for ethnic minority groups that compete in the elections and pass a special (lower) threshold (currently 17).[3]

The 136 members of the Senate are also elected using party-list proportional representation, but from 43 constituencies based on the 41 counties (a total of 121 seats), Bucharest (13 seats) and one for Romanians living overseas (two seats).[4]

Government

The previous election led to a large victory for Liviu Dragnea's Social Democratic Party (PSD), although it fell short of an absolute majority. It made a coalition agreement with the ALDE, forming the Grindeanu Cabinet in January 2017. However, it didn't last long and was replaced by the Tudose Cabinet in June 2017, which didn't last either. The Dăncilă Cabinet took office in January 2018 and was dismissed by a motion of no confidence in October 2019, being subsequently replaced by the PNL minority Orban Cabinet in November 2019. The Orban Cabinet was dismissed by a motion of no confidence on 5 February 2020, but took office again on 14 March 2020.

Parties

Party		Established	Leader	Ideology	Seats before election
	Social Democratic Party	2001	Marcel Ciolacu	Social democracy Social conservatism	S – 67 D – 154
	National Liberal Party	1875	Ludovic Orban	Conservative liberalism Liberal conservatism Christian democracy	S – 30 D – 69
	Save Romania Union	2015	Dan Barna	Anti-corruption Big tent	S – 13 D – 30
	Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania	1989	Hunor Kelemen	Hungarian minority interests Liberal conservatism Regionalism	S – 9 D – 21
	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats	2015	Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu	Liberalism Social liberalism	S – 9 D – 20
	People's Movement Party	2014	Eugen Tomac	Economic liberalism Social conservatism Christian democracy	S – 8 D – 18
	PRO Romania	2018[5]	Victor Ponta	Social liberalism[6] Social democracy	New
	Democratic Forum of Germans	1989	Paul-Jürgen Porr	German minority interests	S – 0 D – 1
	Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party	2018[7]	Dacian Cioloș	Social liberalism	New
	Greater Romania Party	1991	Victor Iovici	Romanian nationalism Romanian irredentism Right-wing populism National conservatism Euroscepticism	S – 0 D – 0
	United Romania Party	2015	Robert Bugă	Romanian nationalism Romanian irredentism National conservatism Protectionism Euroscepticism Russophilia	S – 0 D – 0
	Romanian Ecologist Party	1990	Dănuț Pop	Green liberalism	S – 0 D – 0
	Green Party	2005	Constantin Damov	Green politics	S – 0 D – 0
	Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party	1989	Aurelian Pavelescu	Christian democracy Agrarianism	S – 0 D – 0
	The Right Alternative	2019	Adela Mirza	Economic liberalism Social conservatism	New
	Romanian Socialist Party	2003	Constantin Rotaru	Socialism Marxism Collectivism Russophilia	S – 0 D – 0

Opinion polls

For the events during these years, see 2017 in Romania, 2018 in Romania, and 2019 in Romania.

Aggregated polls since last election.

Date	Poll source	Sample size	PSD	PNL	USR	PLUS	UDMR	ALDE	PMP	PRO	Other	Lead
25 Jul–17 Aug 2020	poll.fm (online)	98.496	11	29	36		1	1	6	8	8	7
29 Jul–5 Aug 2020	CURS	1,100	28	31	14		4	5	5	7	6	3
10–29 Jul 2020	IMAS	1,010	23.4	33.4	17.2		5.6	3.4	3.9	9.7	3.4	10
19–30 Jun 2020	CURS	1,100	28	32	16		5	5	5	7	2	4
5–27 Jun 2020	IMAS	1,010	21.9	33.0	12.3	5.8	3.4	3.7	4.7	11.2	4	11.1
8–27 May 2020	IMAS	1,010	23.0	32.6	11.6	5.1	5.1	4.2	3.7	11.2	3.1	9.6
15–26 May 2020	Avangarde	1,000	29	35	13		5	4	4	6	4	6
21 May 2020	PSD	N/A	27	35	16	2	4	4	4	8	–	8
15–20 May 2020	INSCOP	1,132	25.8	38.5	10.2		6.0	3.6	3.5	9.4	2.9	12.7
1–7 May 2020	BCS	1,545	22.5	33.0	22.0		5.3	1.4	6.5	5.1	4.3	10.5
6–24 Apr 2020	IMAS	1,010	24.8	33.0	10.8	5.1	5.5	4.4	3.4	8.2	4.8	8.2
1–15 Apr 2020	BCS	1,008	22.9	31.3	19.9		3.6	2.5	6.7	8.8	4.2	8.4
5–26 Mar 2020	IMAS	N/A	23.9	36.7	12.5	6.5	4.5	3.5	3.5	5.8	3.0	12.8
11–28 Feb 2020	IMAS	1,010	25.8	40.7	10.0	3.5	4.4	4.3	3.6	4.6	3.1	14.9
13–31 Jan 2020	IMAS	1,007	20.6	47.4	12.4	3.4	4.7	3.2	1.8	3.8	2.7	26.8
20–30 Jan 2020	CURS	1,229	26	37	14		5	4	4	6	1	11
13–18 Dec 2019	Sociopol	1,000	23	47	13		4	2	3	5	3	24
4–18 Dec 2019	IMAS	1,011	18.5	45.0	11.5	3.5	5.0	3.5	3.0	6.4	4.6	26.5
12–17 Dec 2019	CURS	1,067	31	35	14		4	4	5	6	1	4
11–27 Nov 2019	IMAS	1,011	21.3	39.0	12.6	5.6	4.2	3.3	2.9	6.4	4.7	17.7
24 Nov 2019	Iohannis re-elected President of Romania with 66.09% of the vote
25 Oct–3 Nov 2019	USR	1,225	24.0	38.2	20.0		4.5	–	4.3	4.8	4.2	14.2
8–28 Oct 2019	IMAS	1,010	21.2	29.6	16.4	5.6	5.5	4.3	3.4	10.7	4.4	8.4
15–23 Oct 2019	USR	N/A	24.9	36.8	19.9		4.0	–	4.0	6.5	3.9	11.9
12–19 Oct 2019	BCS	1,117	23.8	36.3	16.8		5.7	3.3	5.6	5.6	2.9	12.5
10 Oct 2019	Dăncilă ousted as Prime minister, following a vote of no confidence from the parliament.
9–28 Sep 2019	IMAS	1,010	19.5	27.7	17.9	5.2	5.3	6.2	3.3	9.1	5.3	8.2
3–24 Sep 2019	USR	1,500	25.3	36.8	21.2		2.9	–	3.2	5.6	5.2	11.5
16–20 Sep 2019	Socio-Data	1,070	25	28	22		5	4	5	9	2	3
9–13 Sep 2019	Socio-Data	1,070	26	32	22		4	5	3	6	2	6
2–6 Sep 2019	Socio-Data	1,070	24	32	21		4	3	5	9	2	8
26–30 Aug 2019	Socio-Data	1,070	22	26	24		4	6	5	10	3	2
19–31 Aug 2019	Sociopol	1,001	20	35	16		3	5	5	11	5	15
26–30 Aug 2019	Verifield	1,000	25	28	23		4	6	2	8	4	3
5–28 Aug 2019	IMAS	1,010	17.9	28.4	19.8	5.5	4.6	7.4	2.9	8.7	4.8	8.6
19 Jul–5 Aug 2019	CURS	1,600	24	31	20		4	8	5	7	1	7
15 Jul–2 Aug 2019	IMAS	1,010	19.4	25.5	21.4	6.0	4.2	7.3	2.9	9.0	4.2	4.1
17–23 Jul 2019	BCS	1,128	25.4	34.2	18.6		4.6	5.7	5.5	4.8	1.1	8.8
28 Jun–8 Jul 2019	CURS	1,067	26	29	22		4	5	4	8	2	3
7–26 Jun 2019	IMAS	1,010	18.9	27.5	17.6	7.6	2.5	8.5	3.7	9.8	3.8	8.6
26 May 2019	European elections		22.5	27.0	22.4		5.3	4.1	5.8	6.4	6.5	4.5
2–20 May 2019	IMAS	1,010	21.4	29.3	14.4	6.3	3.3	10.2	5.5	8.0	1.7	7.9
5–28 Apr 2019	CURS	1,500	32	25	12		5	10	5	9	2	7
12–25 Mar 2019	CURS	1,067	31	23	13		5	10	6	8	4	8
1–21 Feb 2019	IMAS	1,010	23.4	23.6	10.5	8.0	5.0	12.4	3.5	11.1	2.5	0.2
21 Jan–6 Feb 2019	CURS	1,067	31	21	9	4	5	10	5	8	7	10
28 Jan–4 Feb 2019	Sociopol	1,003	33	20	9	6	4	11	2	8	7	13
11–30 Jan 2019	IMAS	1,011	25.3	22.1	11.0	4.4	13.4	3.8	8.1	8.9	3.2	3.2
12–20 Jan 2019	BCS	N/A	23.0	23.7	6.5	8.1	4.8	8.1	9.3	10.7	5.8	0.7
Jan 2019	PNL	26,000	30.2	27.0	10.2	5.0	5.0	11.6	4.2	5.5	1.3	3.2
4–20 Dec 2018	IMAS	1,010	25.2	26.1	11.5	8.1	4.6	9.6	2.5	6.2	6.2	0.9
24 Nov–9 Dec 2018	CURS	1,067	33	20	7	5	6	9	5	9	6	13
Nov 2018	IMAS	1,010	24.9	23.3	14.8	8.2	5.8	11.7	2.1	–	9.2	1.6
Oct 2018	IMAS	N/A	27.6	21.9	13.1	9.6	4.7	10.6	4.1	–	8.4	5.7
6–7 Oct 2018	Failure of the constitutional referendum
3–4 Oct 2018	Sociopol	873	38	23	6	5	4	10	1	5	8	15
20 Sep – 1 Oct 2018	CURS	1,067	37	22	8	5	5	9	5	6	3	15
Sep 2018	IMAS	N/A	28.1	27.1	9.5	10.1	5.6	11.4	2.7	–	5.5	1.0
22–27 Sep 2018	Sociopol	1,004	34	20	10	4	4	11	2	7	8	16
7–20 Aug 2018	Sociopol	1,005	35	19	13	4	4	10	3	3	5	16
Jul 2018	IRI	N/A	26	24	7	5	1	6	3	–	28	2
Jun 2018	IMAS	1,200	28.4	29.2	11.3	8.0	5.0	8.6	2.8	–	6.7	0.8
23 Jun – 1 Jul 2018	CURS	1,067	37	24	7	5	5	8	4	5	4	13
22–26 Jun 2018	Sociopol	917	41	20	7	7	4	12	1	5	3	21
28 May – 8 Jun 2018	Sociopol	1,003	40	18	9	8	5	7	1	3	9	22
27 Apr – 8 May 2018	CURS	1,067	39	25	6	3	6	8	5	3	5	14
Mar 2018	CURS	N/A	39	27	7	–	–	12	5	–	10	12
Feb 2018	IMAS	1,010	28.6	29.4	11.2	–	6.0	10.6	4.6	–	9.6	0.8
27 Feb – 5 Mar 2018	Sociopol	1,000	34	33	12	–	6	5	5	–	5	1
29 Jan 2018	The Dăncilă Cabinet takes office, with the confidence of UDMR and other MPs from national minorities.
16 Jan 2018	Prime minister Tudose resigns, followed by other ministers.
3–10 Jan 2018	CURS	1,068	42	27	5	2	6	9	5	2	6	15
24 Nov – 7 Dec 2017	Avangarde	700	46	23	5	–	5	13	4	–	4	23
Nov 2017	CURS	1,067	43	27	5	–	6	9	6	–	4	16
Sep 2017	IMAS	1,000	38.8	30.9	6.8	–	5.0	8.1	3.0	–	7.4	7.9
22 Sep – 5 Oct 2017	Sociopol	N/A	61	24	2	–	3	4	3	–	3	37
28 Aug – 14 Sep 2017	Sociopol	1,005	51	27	7	–	4	6	3	–	2	24
11–23 Aug 2017	Avangarde	710	46	25	6	–	5	7	4	–	7	21
14–29 Jun 2017	Ministers resign. A motion of no-confidence is passed with PSD support. The Tudose Cabinet is sworn in.
15–22 Jun 2017	Avangarde	781	46	30	9	–	3	6	5	–	1	16
Apr 2017	IMAS	N/A	40.6	25.4	8.2	–	–	8.5	–	–	–	15.2
6–14 Mar 2017	Sociopol	1,007	47	21	12	–	5	6	3	–	6	26
Jan 2017	IMAS	N/A	49.0	20.7	8.3	–	–	6.8	–	–	–	28.3
18 Jan – 5 Mar 2017	Street protests force the government to withdraw some of its proposed policies
4 Jan 2017	The Grindeanu Cabinet (PSD–ALDE coalition) assumes office
11 Dec 2016	2016 elections		45.5 154	20.0 69	8.9 30	–	6.2 21	5.6 20	5.4 18	–	6.3 —	25.5

References

1. https://data.ipu.org/node/140/elections?chamber_id=13509
2. Eugen Tomac was elected as an MP in the Chamber of Deputies of Romania in 2016. However, he successfully stood for election in the European Parliament election in 2019, thus Eugen Tomac resigned his seat in the Romanian Parliament on 20 June 2019 to take up his seat in the European Parliament as an MEP on 2 July 2019.
3. Electoral system IPU
4. Electoral system IPU
5. Maria Tufan (20 February 2018). "Victor Ponta și Daniel Constantin au primit personalitate juridică pentru partidul Pro România". Adevărul (in Romanian).
6. Valentina Postelnicu (3 September 2017). "Victor Ponta, în partidul Pro România, alături de Daniel Constantin: Nu mi-am propus să rup PSD". Libertatea (in Romanian).
7. "Dacian Cioloș are, oficial, partid: PLUS". Digi 24 (in Romanian). 15 December 2018.